Month: April 2012

23 posts
Read More

Living under Stalin’s shadow

Vasily Grossman's monumental book, Life and Fate, was written over a protracted period of time and was completed in 1960. Centred on the epic second world war battle of Stalingrad, it exposes the brutal nature of Stalinist Russia. With this 2010 edition and the serialisation by BBC Radio Four, it has been made accessible to new audiences. socialistparty.net revisits this classic work.

Read More

France: Presidential elections shows deep anger at Sarkozy’s rule

In the first round of the French presidential elections, held on 22 April, François Hollande (28.6% vote) of the social democratic Socialist Party (PS) narrowly headed incumbent president Nicolas Sarkozy (27.1%) of the right wing Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). Both candidates face a run-off second ballot on 6 May in which Hollande is predicted to beat the much despised Sarkozy.

Read More

Water charges are just paving the way for privatisation

People who walked into newsagents shops all over the country on last week might easily have staggered out in a confused and shell shocked state after glancing at the morning newspapers. A plethora of banner headlines would have leapt out at them with horror stories of a raft of new fees, charges and taxes awaiting them in the next few years if government plans are allowed to be implemented.

Read More

X Case legislation defeated – Time for a new struggle for abortion rights

Unsurprisingly, the Bill proposed by Socialist Party / United Left Alliance TD, Clare Daly to legislate for the X Case, was overwhelming defeated in the Dail. The establishment fail yet again; women suffer, and working class and economically deprived women who can’t or find it difficult to muster the money to travel to access a termination, and migrant women and women trapped in abusive relationships who have restrictions on their travel, suffer most acutely.

Read More

Reject the Treaty, Reject Austerity!

The “Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union”  is a treaty to institutionalise synchronised austerity across Europe at the expense of basic democratic rights. If implemented, it will mean a further assault on the living standards of working people and will further deepen the economic crisis.

Read More

Why I joined

I have recently joined the Socialist Party. I am a self employed wall and floor tiler and like many in the construction industry, I am finding things very difficult at the moment.

Read More

Promissory note deal – it’s a con!

Do not be conned by the promissory note deal. It represents no benefit to the ordinary people of this State; not in the short, medium or long-term. The deferral of this payment until next year is simply kicking the problem can further down the road.